


Leaving (the Past Behind)

by LadyMurasaki



Series: Empire [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Ancestors with Dancestor names, Gen, Humanstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 19:11:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5837572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyMurasaki/pseuds/LadyMurasaki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanaya knew that something had gone wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first of a mini-AU-series that I'm working on. The quick and dirty explanation of the AU-verse is, years of war left the world struggling to carry on, and from the war rose a single ruler, a harsh Empress. Now, 10 generations of Empresses later, one of the many attempts at organized rebellion against the Empire is finally gaining traction.  
> Want to see more? Have questions about the Empire-Verse? Let me know. I already have a few more fics for this series in the works, but a show of interest is bound to make them easier to write. ;D

Kanaya, age 12, knew that her mother and her mother’s friends were doing something dangerous. She knew because they would come home tired and frustrated and sometimes bleeding or covered in rotted vegetables, and because sometimes they would have to pack up and leave whatever city they were in in the middle of the night. She’d seen on TV about people who opposed the Empire, heard the newscasters speak disparagingly about the rebel groups. 

Kanaya also knew that what they were doing was important to a lot of people. She knew because they told her so, and sometimes she would follow them in secret and listen to Kankri’s grand speeches against the Empire. A lot of people in the crowd would mutter angrily and leave, but some of them stayed, and they would whisper agreements to each other until, when Kankri was stepping off his makeshift stage, he would be walking away to the cheers of the remaining crowd.

Kanaya knew that something had gone wrong. She knew because Kankri and Mituna didn’t come home with her mother and Meulin, and her mother quickly shooed her from the living room with Kankri and Meulin’s 5-year-old twins in tow. The two adults argued in the living room, Meulin frantic and mother stern, and Kanaya turned up the radio and tried to distract the children with some toys so Karkat wouldn’t cry.

Even over the radio she heard the front door slam open and her mother’s shout. A few minutes later and her mother looked in on them. “Kanaya, honey, I need you to take care of the twins. Don’t open the door for anyone but us, okay?”

Her instructions went without saying, but Kanaya nodded anyway. She wanted to ask what was happening, but her mother left before the words were formed. Karkat started sniffling, sensing the tension the way only small children are able to, and stumbled over to plop himself in Kanaya’s lap. Nepeta followed soon after, both of them so full of questions that Kanaya didn’t have any answers to. 

~

The adults didn’t return by the time an hour had passed. Two hours, and still no sign. Kanaya made mac & cheese and ate quietly with the twins as they chattered endlessly about something. She couldn’t focus enough to listen. She tucked them into bed afterwards, and by then another hour had passed -- still no sign of the adults’ return. Kanaya fell asleep sitting on the floor beside the twins’ shared bed.

Banging on the front door woke Kanaya with a start. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been out, but the clock said it was almost midnight. She sat perfectly still for a heartbeat, and when she didn’t hear another noise, she crept to her feet and into the hallway leading to the main room. As she approached the door, she could hear shuffling and low, angry voices outside. Alarm bells went off, and she froze, pressed against a wall.

“... probably not even here…”

“Slippery bitch… left something…”

“... break in?”

She heard enough. Kanaya slipped into her mother’s room and pocketed the wad of cash that she knew was hidden in the dresser before returning to the twins’ room. Carefully, she woke them and shushed their sleepy grumbles, whispering that they were playing a spy game and needed to be Extremely Quiet.

With the children dressing themselves, she pried open the window and peered out at the fire escape and the alleyway that ran below it. It looked empty, so she ushered the children through and down the rickety ladder before herself. Just as she slipped out the window herself, the sound of the front door splintering with a deafening bang reached her, and she rushed down the ladder, falling on her butt at the bottom. Karkat and Nepeta snickered at her, but she shushed them and lead them away from the apartment, holding their tiny hands in her own. 

Kanaya hadn’t had any kind of particular destination in mind when she left, and the novelty of the “Spy Game” wore off quickly on the tired kids. She ended up with Karkat clinging to her back like an oversized koala, Nepeta dragging her feet sleepily and asking to be carried too, as they wandered from dark alley to dark alley, trying to figure out what to do next. They ended up in the small city park just as the sun was rising and, exhausted, Kanaya settled underneath a cement bridge covered in graffiti in a corner of the park. With the twins cuddled against each other on the cold ground, Kanaya finally allowed herself to cry.


	2. Chapter 2

In her rush to abandon their apartment, Kanaya hadn’t brought anything but the clothes on their backs and the wad of cash in her pocket. The twins wanted to go home as soon as they woke up, and Kanaya couldn’t blame them, but she didn’t know how to explain that they couldn’t either. So she didn’t try at all, just calmed their fears as best she could and bought them ice cream for breakfast. Or maybe lunch. She wasn’t too sure what time it was, to be honest. 

The twins, sticky with ice cream, were happy to play on the park’s playground while Kanaya sat on a bench, counting out what money they had to live on for an unknown amount of time. Eighty-three slips. Much more than she thought, but she wasn’t sure if it would be enough. The ice cream had only cost one slip a cone, but they couldn’t eat ice cream all the time. And they would need blankets or coats or something, if they were going to keep sleeping outside -- she wasn’t sure any hotel would rent a room to a 12-year-old, or even how much it would cost. She tucked half the money in her sock and stood to call over the children. It was a good a time as any to go to the store. 

~

After buying coats, a blanket, a backpack, and a box of peanut butter crackers, and then stopping in a fast food joint for a more filling lunch, Kanaya started to worry about their quickly dwindling money. The store trip alone had put them back sixty slips, even after picking only the cheapest items she could find, and then their meal cost another twelve slips. She was left with only eight slips in her sock and a deep regret. 

The next few days wore on the twins, who almost constantly cried for their warm beds and their parents and “uncle ‘tuna” and “auntie Porrim.” Kanaya managed to slip a pair of stuffed animals out of a gas station -- a cat and a crab -- without being caught, and those appeased the little ones for a short while. She accidentally discovered that sympathetic people saw them as a charity case, and only felt a little bad for accepting their money; soon enough, she found herself set up every afternoon on their blanket on the sidewalk, the kids playing with their stuffed animals or rocks or whatever caught their attention and Kanaya stitching up a hole in an item of their clothing. She got a lot of questions, and plenty of scorn, but also just enough money to buy a meal that they could split. Mornings the twins would play at the playground, and evenings and nights they would huddle together under their graffiti bridge. Nepeta had ‘found’ a couple pieces of chalk (Kanaya suspected that she’d stolen them, but who was she to scold the girl?), and the twins spent a few minutes every night adding to the graffiti on their ‘home.’ She tried her best to get them to work on their letters and numbers, but only Karkat seemed to take an interest in it. 

It was almost a week after they’d left their apartment, and the twins were starting to settle into this new life. Nepeta was trying to teach Karkat some overly complicated game that involved rocks and their stuffed animals, and Kanaya was stitching up a new tear in Karkat’s shirt. 

A dull clunk in the little tin can in front of her alerted her of a contributor, and she looked up to thank them with a smile. It didn’t hurt to be polite, and sometimes they would come back and give her more money if she was. The man didn’t walk away like they usually did, and she set down her sewing in anticipation of being questioned. Questions usually came before money, but she wasn’t complaining. 

“Hey. You’re awfully young to be out here alone. Where are your parents?” The man brushed his fingers through his mohawk, glancing from Kanaya’s face to the twins. His gaze hovered there, and she cleared her throat to regain his attention. 

“It’s just us.” He didn’t need the whole story, especially since she wasn’t even sure of it herself. 

He nodded, glancing again to the twins and then bending down to her level. She stared back, placid, as he appeared to study her. 

“You kinda remind me of someone, you know?” 

“Do I?” This guy was quickly growing annoying, and she started fiddling with the sewing in her lap, hoping he would get the hint and move along. 

“Yeah... You look a lot like her. Where are you kids staying, anyway?” Almost before he finished asking he was already looking bashful; before she had a chance to tell him off, he added hastily. “Shit, man, sorry, that’s none of my business. What I mean is, uh… if you needed someplace to stay, I could help you out.” 

Kanaya remained silent, staring at him in suspicion as she tried to work out what exactly this weird guy wanted. 

Finally he sighed and ruffled his mohawk again. “Sorry, that probably sounds super suspicious, huh? But, um, well… I’d like you to at least think it over. And I’ll be here tomorrow, if you want to talk? My name is Rufioh, by the way.” He stuck his hand out, but she just stared at it until he took it back. He sighed again and stood to leave. “I’ll, um, stop bothering you then... And hopefully see you tomorrow.” 

When she didn’t vocally respond, he shrugged and strolled off down the road. As soon as he was out of sight, Kanaya reached for her tin jar, inspecting the crumpled 20 slip and three colorful candies he’d left. 

~

“Who do I remind you of?” 

“Huh?” Rufioh glanced into the rear-view mirror of his car at the three filthy, suspicious children huddled in his backseat. He was honestly still a little surprised that his offer had been accepted. 

“You said I remind you of someone.” Kanaya, the oldest, stared back like she was issuing a challenge. 

“Ah, right… hang on.” He came to a stop at the red light and dug out his wallet. Retrieved from its hiding place in a torn seam, he smiled wistfully at the picture of his younger self, surrounded by the first batch of kids he’d managed to rescue, partially grown and about to set off on their own rebellion. 

The car behind him blared its horn in impatience, and he jumped, handing the picture to the girl as he accelerated out of the light. “Here, the woman in the middle.” 

The picture was plucked from his fingers, and the children fell silent behind him. He glanced into the mirror again when it continued long after he expected questions, and was startled to see tears streaming down Kanaya’s face as she clutched the picture. 

“‘naya?” Karkat questioned, tugging on her sleeve and tiny tears already forming at the corners of his eyes. Nepeta was struggling to get a look at the picture. 

He could only barely hear Kanaya’s voice over the twins’ sudden noisy concern. “Mother…”

It took a lot of effort to not drive off the road in surprise, but it was a close thing. He opened his mouth to ask -- because sure he hadn’t heard from them in such a long time, but he hadn’t heard anything about Porrim having kids. Or were they Meulin’s? Who was the father? 

Soft sobs stopped him, and he glanced back to where the three kids huddled, Kanaya openly sobbing now as the distressed children clung to her shirt. 

Rufioh decided that there would be time enough for questions later. 

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: My knowledge of children is basically nil. I actually had to research five-year-olds for this.


End file.
